If Lockport had a watercolorist laureate, Joseph Whalen would be a shoe-in.

Over a career that stretches back many decades, the big-hearted artist has been capturing daily life in his native city and its environs with aplomb and no shortage of good humor. His paintings almost always carry tongue-in-cheek titles, like “Old Man With a Cane, Getting Directions From an Old Man With a Cane.” In December, the Market Street Art Gallery in Lockport named its gallery after Whalen and his wife, Kathleen.

“Joe Whalen is perhaps one of Lockport’s most beloved, if not most prolific, artists. Saying only that he was born ‘a long time ago,’ Whalen has spent a vast number of decades capturing the day-to-day life and rural scenery of Lockport, from its barns and canal, to its parades and bar rooms,” according to a Kenan Center release. “So recognizable are his frugally painted, and humorously titled works, that they can easily be called iconic.”